The present invention relates to an illumination module.
Hitherto, with surface emitting devices that use a light emitting diode (LED) as a light source, there have been cases where light leaks from a gap between the LED light source and a light guiding plate, or impairing the appearance by that light transmitted through the light guiding plate is not reflected totally inside the light guiding plate, which causes exiting light to look like that of a point light source. An example of surface emitting devices that have been proposed as a solution (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-227065) includes: a light guiding member having an end surface into which light from an LED light source enters and a light emitting surface as a light exit surface from which the incident light exits; and a multi-walled hollow member made up of a plurality of hollow cells through which light exiting the light emitting surface is transmitted, and uses a frame member to hold the peripheral edge portions of the light guiding member and the multi-walled hollow member as well as the LED light source.
In the surface emitting device of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-227065, where the peripheral edge portions of a light emitting surface are covered with the frame member, the light emitting surface is practically framed and, in addition, is darker at the peripheral edge portions toward the frame member than at the center, which make the light emitting surface look as though there is a border along the peripheral edge portions of the light emitting surface, thereby impairing the appearance.